Google Hyperlapse brings your trip to life

New Google Hyperlapse tool is mesmerising

Google Street View has a new function, Google Hyperlapse, that really brings your trip to life.

The free online tool uses Google Street View images to create a personalised animated road trip, meaning sofa surfers can see the world from the comfort of their own home.

The Hyperlapse tool, created by a Toronto design company Teehan+Lax, lets you choose any two drivable points on the map and then stitches together the Google Street View images to create an animation that you can pan around in real time.

Using the app is easy, you just select two places on Google Earth that are connected by Street View and Hyperlapse does the rest.

The video allows viewers to see where shots are taken from through a Google Maps interface, and also select a point on the map where the camera will remain fixed during that leg of the journey.

As the film was made using images from Street View, the team behind it believes others will want to use Google's unlimited database of source material to edit similar films which could become inspirational tools for travellers.

Jon Lax, a partner at Teehan+Lax, said: "We aimed at making the process simpler by using Google Street View as an aid, but quickly discovered that it could be used as the source material. It worked so well, we decided to design a very usable UI around our engine and release Google Street View Hyperlapse."

"Now that we have made the software open source others will make more videos using footage from anywhere in the world."

We think Google Hyperlapse is awesome; what do you think of it? Post your comments below.